Comment in:
Neuropsychological performance in symptomatic and asymptomatic HIV infection.
Bornstein RA, Nasrallah HA, Para MF, Whitacre CC, Rosenberger P, Fass RJ.
Department of Psychiatry, Ohio State University, Columbus.
OBJECTIVE: To examine cognitive function in patients at various stages of HIV infection, and to determine the nature and severity associated with stage of illness. DESIGN: Subjects were administered an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and thirty-three HIV-1-infected homosexual/bisexual men and 77 HIV-negative control subjects who had been screened for previous neurological illness. All subjects were volunteers in a longitudinal study of neurobehavioral complications of HIV infection. RESULTS: Patients with symptomatic infection differed from controls on a large number of measures, and asymptomatic patients had a more circumscribed pattern of deficit. On a summary measure of cognitive impairment, there was a twofold increase in the prevalence of impairment in asymptomatic patients relative to controls, and a fourfold increase in symptomatic patients. Memory and dexterity problems appear to be early features of neurobehavioral dysfunction, and frontal lobe deficits were found in patients with symptomatic infection. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that there is a steady increase in the prevalence of neurobehavioral abnormalities associated with stage of infection. The pattern of abnormality also varies with disease stage.
Publication Types:
PMID: 8507418 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]